Beware of Jet Blasts and Online Reviews

Last Saturday I drove to Norfolk, VA with some coworkers to go on a tour of the Navy's newest Aircraft Carrier, The George H.W. Bush. It was impossible for me to get a good full photo because of the size so here is an internet photo. All of the rest of the photos are mine.

A few fun facts before I get to my story.

• Northrop made the ship for $6.2 Billion. This past week the SEC allowed Northrop to divest its ship building division to focus on more profitable defense projects.
• The ship is nuclear powered. It needs to be refueled once every 23 years (yes, years).
• The ship holds up to 5000 sailors. 
• There are usually about  65 aircrafts on the carrier but it can hold up to about 90 depending on size.
• The U.S. has 11 active aircraft carriers with 2 more planned and 1 more being built. The next closest countries (Italy and Spain) have...2 aircraft carriers each.

On the way down we decided to find a seafood place because we were extremely close to the ocean. The place our phones sent us was interesting to say the least. It was a little dive place in a shady area call The Willoughby Inn Seafood Restaurant. It had a 86% on UrbanSpoon and was generally well reviewed. We did not think it was as great as the collective internet. If any of you are in the Norfolk area I would pass on the Willoughby Inn.




The tour was extremely interesting. We got to go in a lot of the unclassified areas. It's incredible to think that up to 5000 people live on this ship. We saw their sleeping area and it was easier to understand how they all fit.

This trip confirmed that I made the right choice by not joining the navy. I was ready to be off the ship after only two hours. Everything was so close and cramped. It made me very uncomfortable.

It's hard to describe just how large everything was on the ship. For example, they still have an old school anchor and every link in the chain to hold the anchor weighed 300lbs.

Of all the fascinating things I saw on the tour I was most intrigued by the food the sailors ate. From what I saw and the impression I got from the sailor giving the tour they live on fried food, pizza, and soda. I'm not sure how they work long hard days eating food devoid of any nutritional value and dripping in grease. I thought the military has been improving their food quality over the past few years? I'm not delusional enough to think they would serve free-range organic eggs and locally grown heirloom tomatoes but I wasn't expecting 80% of the calories to come from wings and Pepsi.

All in all it was a fun trip. I would highly recommend touring an aircraft carrier if you ever get a chance.